Gluten-Free Tuesday: Panettone Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What kind of flour is best for panettone? ›

This recipe works best with high gluten flour or normal bread flour modified with added vital wheat gluten. It is available on some stores and online too. But, I used King Arthur bread flour (12.7% gluten) and added some Fairhavan Mill 00 pizza flour. 00 Pizza flour has a very fine granule and high gluten percentage.

Panettone is famous for its tangy flavor and yellow, soft and gooey dough that is unlike no other. The secret behind it is an Italian yeast called lievito madre, or mother yeast. But it's not an easy yeast to work with: you need time and patience to master it.

Panettone tends to be a little more expensive than most other baked goods, mainly due to the amount of time that goes into making each one. A traditional panettone is usually a lengthy procedure, however, a cheap mass-produced alternative will take shortcuts in the baking process which will be reflected in its taste.

Healthy Munching: The Panettone is gluten-free and healthy. Traditionally it is served with hot beverages, sweet wine, or as a rich dessert.

Yeast prefers warmth

“). However, if you are patiently (or impatiently) waiting for your dough to rise and it is cold then you might be waiting for longer than you expect. If you want to hurry things along, you could try putting the dough near to a warm radiator or your oven.

Artisanal panettone will have higher amounts of yolks and butter without emulsifiers or preservatives. They will contain real vanilla beans and not the cheaper vanillin. The fruit will be high quality candied citrus (not only orange, but often also pricier citron) and not industrial candied citrus with sulfur dioxide.

Due to the delicate structure of the dough, which consists mainly of eggs, butter, and sugar, we hang them upside down immediately after baking so the starches can set as they cool. This prevents them from collapsing, which is also why the are so soft and fluffy!

The dimensions should be around 13,5 cm / 5.3 inch diameter and a height of 9.5 cm / 3.7 inch. Panetonne needs to cool upside down after baking, because the delicate and fluffy bread would collapse if you leave it standing up after baking.

It has a texture akin to sandwich bread, in that when you compress it between your fingers it can be molded into Play-Doh-esque forms. It's porous and slightly sour, a flavor it derives from the intense fermenting process it undergoes before it hits the oven. It is labor-intensive and prohibitively difficult to bake.

It's common to serve it with a sweet wine and an accompaniment of something rich and creamy, perhaps based on mascarpone (with egg yolks, as used in tiramisu), plus dried or candied fruits. Ice cream, jelly, custard, hot or cold sauces and some fruits make panettone a delicious pudding.

What is the best panettone Italian brand? ›

noun,plural pan·et·to·nes [pan-i-toh-neez], Italian pan·et·to·ni [pah-net-taw-nee]. an Italian yeast-leavened bread, traditionally eaten on holidays, usually made with raisins, candied fruit peels, almonds, and brandy.

Gluten Content:

This high gluten content is a significant factor in why American wheat products might be harder to digest for those with sensitivities. Conversely, in Europe, the majority of wheat is soft wheat, lower in proteins and thus lower in gluten content.

Italians are very conscious of the connection between health and food, and have worked hard to adapt their regional cuisine to accommodate a gluten-free diet. So, despite gluten being a common component of many classic Italian dishes and desserts, Italy is an easy place to find great gluten-free food.

There are also options if you're trying to eat less gluten in Italy, rather than avoid it entirely. Traditional bread made with local, ancient grains–like the Sicilian tumminia, perciasacchi, or majorca–is substantially lower in gluten and higher in fiber, protein, and iron than modern and refined grains.

For cookies, bars, cakes/cupcakes, biscuits, scones, or anything that needs a tender crumb, use Farina di grano tenero, 00. This is your “cake flour.” Nobody wants a chewy cake.

Italian mills will usually sell flour based on what its purpose is for. For long fermented doughs such as panettone the flour will be '00' but with a stronger gluten content than the '00' flour they'll sell for pizza or pasta making. An all-purpose flour can also be '00'.

Grano duro is slightly yellow, more granular, and more commonly used for pasta and some breads in the south of Italy. It's also knows as durum wheat flour. Grano tenero is generally what we think of as white flour, and is more broadly used in bread, pizza, and pastry, and northern pasta doughs.

In effect there are two basic types of wheat grown and used in Italy: grano tenero (triticum aestivum) and grano duro (triticum durum). In English the latter is often called durum wheat. In theory, durum flour isn't even called flour, it's called semola, which is much more grainy than flour: think polenta.